Home- day 4 and 5

I have had two different family members tell me that others have asked why oh why I haven't kept up blogging daily with updates. I stated before I plan to continue blogging now that we are home as our journey as a family has just begun. I will hold to this statement but have quickly realized that the biological need for sleep sets in once the kids are in bed. Last night I felt like a champion marathon runner as I was able to stay awake until 10pm for the first time in weeks! I still wasn't able to make it through an entire DVR'd episode of Celebrity apprentice (thanks Dad for not disclosing your spoiler alert today... Grandpa was snickering in heaven I am sure). Things continue to move along pretty well here. I no longer require an alarm clock as Ruslan keeps time just fine... 6:30am every morning. Yesterday we headed to Chad's parents in Little York for a belated birthday celebration for his mom. His family was greatly anticipating our arrival as they had allowed us a few days at home alone for bonding. The boys did not seem fazed by all of the people but checked in with Chad and I every once in a while. Papa Mike has several remote controlled tractors which the boys loved. Amanda put out quite a spread of food with Stefanie making a mean turtle cheesecake. Pasha followed Mike around quite a bit and whenever he needed help with his tractor he took it to Mike. Uncle Chad and Aunt Amanda brought their puppy Lily. Initially all of the dogs were kenneled inside so the boys wouldn't get scared. We had been outside all afternoon and they had brought one of their doggie outfits. They wondered if Lily wore a dress the boys would find her less intimidating. Sure enough, Ruslan was ALL OVER Lily when Chad put her on a leash in her dress and took her out into the yard. Ruslan wanted Lily to lick his face. Pasha still wasn't sure about it but was interested that his brother was so comfortable with Lily. The boys seemed to really enjoy being outside all afternoon. Last night we were all pretty tired from the long day (the girls had gone to church in the morning and I had gone down to Macomb to do some grading in my office). After the boys went to bed, Callie asked for a snack. She wanted to have an apple as she had seen the boys eating an apple for their bedtime snack. She saw in the fruit bowl that there was one apple and one orange left. She then said that since Pasha is allergic to oranges maybe she should eat the orange rather than the apple. I was so proud of her that she was thinking of others first rather than herself, but told her that she could have the apple as we could go to the store and buy more for Pasha.
Today we had a Memorial Day lunch at my parent's at Lake Warren. This morning the kids played outside on our swingset for a little while and I went through some clothes a family friend had given us. I was so excited that the family had thought enough to give us their son's outgrown clothes. They were in really good shape and just the right sizes for the boys. The boys enjoyed playing in the sandbox and dangling their feet in the water off of the dock. Grandma Argyle got to meet them for the first time. Pasha really enjoys playing with Jessica's fiancee Matt. I am hoping that this will be an added incentive for Pasha to walk down the aisle in a couple of weeks in their wedding!
Reality has begun to set in. The reality of things is that I am the mother of four children. Four mouths to feed, bathe, and clothe. I had a moment tonight when I had to leave the room behind me with a chorus of "mamas". Yes, all FOUR kids were saying my name in that tone of voice which means they need something. One dropped their fork, one wanted a napkin, one didn't like the food, and the fourth needed a towel in the bathroom. I know you may be thinking... hey lady, you signed up for this, you completed a ream of paper of copies and another ream of paper of forms and paid tens of thousands of dollars to increase your family through the wonderful option of adoption. Yes indeed I did all of those things (with the support of my wonderful dear husband and family). That doesn't mean there are times I need a break. Even though it is only day five. So here's the payoff. As I was putting the boys to bed, I hit my head on their bunk bed (I really hate bunk beds for this reason). I sat down hard on the floor and held my head cause it really hurt and I had my mouth clamped shut to avoid the spillage of profanity. Pasha jumped out of bed and Ruslan quickly followed and they both kissed me and hugged me and spoke soothingly in Russian. A half hour later during Callie's bedtime I hit my head on her bunk bed TOO (thankfully this time it was the back of my head). She spoke soothingly to me in English (in a strangely familiar way) and kissed me and hugged me. As a type now I can still feel the ache from both places on my head; but the overriding feeling of my heart feeling full makes it easy to push the pain from my head. I know there will be many tough days (and nights)ahead; but there will also be many wonderful ones too. Oh, and Ruslan is now chasing our little dog around the house (thank you Uncle Chad and Lily).
Tomorrow we head to the international adoption physician for our post-adoption evaluation. She will do a thorough examination of both boys, look at the medical records we received (so scanty in information it is almost humourous) and recommend a plan of treatment for immunization and overall developmental intervention. Happy Memorial Day to everyone.

Home- Days 1 and 2

I wanted to recap the final leg of our journey and update how things have been going since we got home. Our flight from Amsterdam to Detroit went fairly well with the boys being pretty quiet. Ruslan sat with Chad in the row behind Pasha and I. There was a male flight attendant who was a snob to us (don’t think he was a parent) when the boys pushed the call button. Really, you have a button that lights up within easy reach of a preschooler? As we deplaned Chad and I commented how well things had been going up to that point (first mistake). Since Detroit was our port of entry, we had to go through customs and immigration. We were told by the Embassy to plan for 45 minutes per child to complete the immigration stuff. It really only took about fifteen minutes total. The immigration officials were really nice; they congratulated us and told us how cute the boys were. They also said how nice it was that the boys were able to be adopted together since they are brothers. On the flight to Detroit a woman told me how cute Pasha was. That made me feel good inside. After immigration, we had to go and pick up our baggage. This was when things went awry. We had to wait a few minutes, and the boys began to get hyper from being overtired. It didn’t help that Chad and I were exhausted as well. I am sure that everyone in the area of baggage belt #6 questioned my parenting techniques. The boys had their backpack/leashes on and for the first time we really had to use them. I held onto each boys’ leash as Chad wrangled our luggage. They were chasing each other in circles around me, clotheslining each other and falling all over the place. Chad accidentally clocked Ruslan on the chin with the luggage so we had more tears. We didn’t have a whole lot of time so we placed Ruslan in the stroller and Chad pulled Pasha along by the hand. We found a monitor to figure out what gate our flight to Peoria was at AND….. Peoria 1:38pm flight CANCELLED. WHAT? Then I looked outside and saw the torrential rain and lightning and everything clicked; we were not going to get home today. We headed to the customer service counter for Delta and saw a long line. I called a customer service representative and couldn’t hear a thing. I kept asking her to speak more loudly and wondered if she thought I needed to turn up my hearing aide (I had a hearing test earlier in the year so knew it wasn’t me). I was able to discern that we had automatically been rebooked on another flight in the morning at 8:30 to Minneapolis and then another flight to Peoria. Chad was not thrilled and I felt the need to speak to someone in person. I eyed the long line that hadn’t moved since I began my call several minutes earlier and asked Chad what he wanted to do. He replied, “I want to go home”. He took the boys over to some chairs while I stood in line. As I stood there, I could hear everyone on their cell phones calling family and friends about their cancelled flights. I felt like the floor was moving and even asked a woman standing in front of me if she felt it too. No, it wasn’t vibrating; I guess I had been on an airplane for too long. I waited about 45 minutes before making it to the front of the line. It turned out that we were extremely fortunate as I was assisted by a wonderful man whom had just started working his shift. I told him about our situation and asked if there was anything he could do or if Delta would pay for our hotel stay. He said he was going to see if he could get us on a flight to somewhere close to home since we had been traveling for so long with young children. He complimented me on how brave we were to undertake adoption of two boys so close together in age, and said his daughter’s idea of children was a bevy of cats but he held out hope some day he would be a grandparent. He found two seats on a later flight to Peoria, but wasn’t sure if he could get four seats. He called a supervisor over who punched in some codes into the computer and voila we were booked on the 7:28 flight to Peoria!
Chad and I still didn’t believe we would make it home today. I was receiving phone calls and text messages from our family and friends about the weather back home and how a violent storm was heading through the area. 7:28 came and went. We needed to get rid of the lightning otherwise we wouldn’t be cleared for takeoff.
Finally, a few minutes after 8pm we boarded the flight for home. I fell asleep for the middle portion of the flight. I woke up when we were in the middle of a significant thunderstorm. I had never seen lightning from an airplane and would be happy never to experience it again. Ruslan woke up too and began crying; the lights were out in the plane so it was quite dark with the exception of the bursts of lightning. We thankfully landed a few minutes after 9pm in Peoria. My parents, Samantha, Callie, Jess and Matt, Jaimey and Christian, and Sonia and Aiden were waiting for us with signs. They were also wearing their From Russia with Love t-shirts. I thought the girls would jump into my arms but they were more interested in hugging their brothers. Sonia had brought little gift bags for the boys with snacks and a couple of toys. These were a big hit as the boys immediately sat down and began playing. Pasha and Aiden were pushing their car back and forth between the two of them. It all was a bit surreal as we had been waiting so long for this moment.
We loaded up the car and headed to Chad’s sister’s home to pick up his jeep and the dogs. Sam rode home as my copilot and kept me entertained so that I would stay awake for the hour long drive home. Callie and the boys fell asleep half way home. It is a tight fit for all three carseats in my car. We are going to have to figure something out for times when we all have to go somewhere. Once we got home the girls showed the boys their room and everyone commenced playing while Chad and I brought in the luggage. I convinced everyone it was late and we all needed to get to bed. The boys laid in bed for a while talking but were asleep by midnight. Chad was asleep before that and I followed shortly after the boys. I woke a couple of times in the middle of the night as the time change made my body feel I shouldn’t be sleeping even though I was exhausted. Everyone was awake by 6:30 so I got up and made pancakes. The boys weren’t thrilled with them, I am sure the syrup was too sweet for their palates. I had dishes cleared and the three little ones bathed and dressed by 8am. It was a good practice for next week when we have to be places to be early in the morning.
The day went by fairly uneventful with the boys pushing their toy cars around all day. We had lunch and then headed to their visit with the pediatrician at 1pm. He checked them out and said he would defer to our specialist’s recommendations from our appointment next week. He struggled to read the immunization records which had been written out in Russian with the translator making little notes by the dates of immunization. The boys responded to the pediatrician really well; I think they had regular check-ups in the orphanage so it was not an unusual thing for them. It took about an hour and a half at the pediatrician since he did a thorough review of all their body systems. He mentioned Ruslan had tight heel cords which was to be expected and that although it seemed his legs were mostly affected his entire right side does have some weakness. He thought that Ruslan would really respond well to physical therapy so after we see Dr. Ladage next week we will get that started. The boys begin speech therapy at my university clinic next week too. It was funny that the nurse asked me not to bring all four kids in together for shots because she didn’t think she could handle that many at once! I don’t blame her it was a bit chaotic.
Pasha got a prescription for his eczema and I am sure more meds for Ruslan will follow in the next few weeks. After our appointment we dropped off the prescription at Walgreens and headed to my parents to get a snack for the kids. My dad was out mowing on his John Deere tractor and offered to give the kids a ride in the wagon. Callie and Pasha gladly hopped in but Ruslan wasn’t sure and wanted to watch. After a couple of laps around the yard Dad stopped and asked Ruslan if he would want to sit on his lap and drive. Ruslan happily jumped up on Dad’s lap and drove a couple more laps. I took some pictures with my phone and couldn’t help but think how my Grandpa used to do the same thing with Jaimey and I. I imagine he was smiling in heaven. After we got home we headed to the park across the street to play with Dakota and Gail Strope. Christian came over as she was at her babysitter’s across the street. The boys worked hard at figuring out the playground equipment. Ruslan had to work extra hard to climb up the structure with the foot pegs but he did it. Everyone clapped and cheered for him.
Last night Jess stopped by during dinner and then stayed a while to play with the kids. Bath and bedtime went pretty smoothly. I have been putting the boys to sleep at 8, Callie at 8:30-9 and Sam after that. I wanted Callie and Sam to continue to get some alone time with me as I used to cuddle and talk with them during the half hour before bed before we left for Russia. Sam was still awake when I went to bed. Chad was snoring when I crawled into bed about 9:15 and I fell asleep by 9:30 without meaning to as I was trying to watch some TV. Oh, well! I woke up at 11pm when Chad jumped out of bed. Then I realized that the boys were screaming. I went into the bedroom to see what was going on as Chad was coming out. Apparently one of them had experienced a nightmare and thought he saw another crocodile outside the window. A few minutes later the screaming erupted again so I headed in and spoke to them in Russian for a bit which calmed them down again. Fortunately they slept through the rest of night.
So, all things considered I think we are adjusting well. I don’t know how I am going to do all of the parenting and work (I pretty much am cleaning, cooking, and doing laundry from the minute I wake up until the minute I fall into a pile in bed). I guess it will get easier as I get more practice at it; I am trying to stay organized and stay on top of the dishes and such. The girls are helping and the boys are pitching in too. This weekend we have Chad’s mom’s birthday party tomorrow and a cookout at the lake with my parents on Memorial day. Somewhere in there I have to work on grading finals. Chad is not sure if the boys will be able to handle the party at his parents because they have three dogs and Chad and Amanda will probably have their puppy there too. We hate to have to put all of the dogs in the house but it would just be too traumatizing to the boys and hurt everyone else’s ears with their screaming if the dogs were outside with us. We will see how it goes! I hope everyone enjoys their Memorial Day weekend!

Amsterdam- day 29

We are in the airport in Amsterdam awaiting the LONG transatlantic flight home (well, Detroit actually but it is the USA so that is fine by me). The airport went fine in Moscow; nobody asked us any questions at all about leaving with two children after we had arrived childless. The first flight went ok with Ruslan doing the typical little crying thing and having to go to the bathroom twice (thankfully the guy in the aisle seat didn't seem to mind too much). In the last 45 minutes of the flight he wanted to go again, but I distracted him by drawing whatever he asked me to draw (it wasn't pretty but he didn't care). So, hopefully this next flight goes by quickly without much incidents. One step closer!

Moscow-day 28

Today is our last day in Moscow as we fly out early tomorrow morning. Chad and I are very ready to go; the boys don't know what to expect so they are none the wiser. Chad and I both have a little anxiety about getting through the airport with them mostly due to concerns with our paperwork. Everything is in order, we have the boys' passports and adoption decrees but there is always that nagging feeling that we won't be allowed to leave the country. I know that hundreds of families leave the SVO airport every month with their newly adopted children so I am sure it will be fine. Chad is worried (although he doesn't say it) about the mechanics of hauling all of the luggage and boys through everything. It won't help that we are going to be leaving in the middle of the night so may have some very cranky little guys. I am hoping once we get checked in and get rid of the luggage they will fall asleep on our laps as we wait to board the plane. They didn't sleep at all during the four hour flight from Kemerovo to Moscow, so we will see. We couldn't get seats all together for either flight so we will split up two and two. Gotta go; thanks again for following our journey... which is to be continued....

Moscow-Day 27

It's Monday but the days of the week have not really been relevant for a while now. It has been like we are lost in time, in another world. Today was the best day yet of sightseeing. Vladimir picked us up at 10:30am and we drove to the Moscow River where we boarded a sightseeing tour boat. The ride lasted about 90 minutes and gave us views of many of the important landmarks of the city. Vladimir told us yesterday that when Napoleon tried to conquer Moscow the Russian military had already burned the city and left so he did not have anything to conquer. Many French soldiers died in the fires and there was not any food left for the French army to eat so they left. The boys sat and enjoyed the boat ride. Today was the warmest day yet with a slight breeze. Chad and I were a bit warm but the boys insisted on wearing their spring Columbia coats Grandma Argyle bought them for the entire boat ride. Their Siberian roots hold strong. They are in for quite a surprise when we get home and they experience the temperatures of an Illinois summer. Chad took many pictures during the boat ride; I cannot wait until we get to a place where there is wifi and I will upload them for everyone to enjoy. After our boat ride Vladimir drove us to Red Square. It was amazing to see the walls of the Kremlin and Red Square and recognize both the history and also how long they had stood in that place. Vladimir gave us a nice brief history of each place. I did not realize that Ivan the Terrible had blinded the architects of Red Square as he did not want them to be able to go anywhere else and build something as magnificent. Also, people were actually living within the gates of the Kremlin in the 20th century. Now no one lives there and it houses mostly administrative offices for the government. We saw the President drive through today; the police did not barricade the streets they simply had traffic cops blow their whistles and stand in the middle of the big highway. The KGB (now called the RFB I think) came flying through first and then a couple minutes later several police cars and large Mercedes Benz SUVs came through. It was eerily quiet in comparison to the typical noise of traffice in that particular part of the city. While at Red Square we were going to try and eat at McDonald's but it was packed so we ate at the Sbarro next door. The food was good (better than the one on Old Arbat street) and the boys loved the butter and garlic noodles they got with their kids' meals. Another item that I can easily serve at home. As we were finishing up our lunch, Pasha again struck up a conversation with the woman who was clearing our table. She asked him his name and he replied, "Pasha Zasypkin". It was good to know he can answer such a question as people always ask little kids this and it is a question they will ask him at his preschool screening. Now if we can just get him to switch to Gipson we will be doing great! His birth last name does end with the same sound as Gipson and I know he can say the "g" sound so I am sure it will not be too tough for him. After leaving the Red Square we stopped by a Hello Kitty store I had found and Chad bought me a neat tote bag I can use to take the kids swimming. The girls would have loved the store but the prices were pretty high (my tote bag wasn't too expensive though). As we headed home after the full day, Pasha leaned in to me and said "you are my mama forever" in Russian. Boy, is he pretty amazing. Ruslan did not get scared or cry at all today. He did however show me how he likes to pick his nose! It was really hard for me not to carry on about it but I have found that the more I respond to things with heightened emotion the more he does it. Finally, we stopped at the market and went to the outdoor produce stand with the nice family that always enjoys speaking to the boys. Pasha kept picking up an egg while I was buying them some strawberries and the woman gave him the egg. We began to walk away and Pasha stopped, turned around, and asked the woman if his brother could have one too. Thank God they are together. I will leave you with this final story. During lunch I was speaking with Vladimir and I commented on how proud I have been with the boys overall behavior thus far. He stated that yes, they were more calm and better behaved than a lot of the children he sees driving for adoptive families. He really appreciated that they did not curse as a lot of children from orphanages have quite a vocabulary of curse words. I thought this was nice to hear but know both boys have probably cursed at us a few times when it was bedtime and their cars had to be put up on the shelf.
We are done sightseeing. Tomorrow we will clean and pack our things as we will leave at 2:30 in the morning from our apartment to head to the airport. I am strongly considering leaving the boys in their pajamas and just changing them later in the airplane. Our flight leaves for Amsterdam Wednesday morning at 5:30am, which is your Tuesday evening. Tomorrow may be my last post from Russia!

Moscow- day 26

I know you can't tell by my blog, but we are taking lots of pictures as we go sightseeing with the boys. Once I can use my laptop and wifi I will load the pictures to the blog. Today we went to the circus (it is supposed to be the best one around). We made it through the first 30 minutes and then Ruslan got quite scared from all of the dark and light changes and then got upset when the bears driving the bicycles left. Our driver tried to explain to him that everything was okay but Ruslan would have nothing of it. We sat out in the lobby for the first half of the show. During this time Ruslan was sitting on my lap with his sucker but he might as well have been a million miles away. I felt so disconnected with him as he was crying and although it seemed he felt better when I held him it just wasn't enough. I figured out that I knew how to talk about sleeping in Russian so I told him the bears and bicycles had to go to sleep. He immediately stopped crying but still did not want to go back into the circus. During the intermission Chad, Pasha, and Vladimir came out and Vladimir tried talking to Ruslan again. I suggested that maybe Pasha should talk to Ruslan and this did the trick. Pasha told him not to be scared, that the circus was beautiful and not to cry. The second half of the circus there were times when Ruslan grabbed my hand but he kept telling Pasha he wasn't scared. I praised him after the circus for how brave he was.
After the circus we headed to a memorial park which was built to commemorate all of the soldiers lost in wars. It was beautiful and built in the early 90s. The boys were able to see tanks and get their picture taken on one. We then headed to the Papa John's we had spied earlier in the week and ordered carryout pizza. It was not exactly like home, but pretty close (and now Chad is laying on the couch holding his belly from eating too much). We had to bribe the boys with dessert to get them to eat their pizza; hope this attitude changes as it is a staple at our house.
Tomorrow we are going on a boat ride down the Moscow river to see the Kremlin and Red Square. That should be it for our tourism as Tuesday we will be busy cleaning up the apartment (although we have kept it pretty tidy) and packing for HOME. That's right, folks... it is no longer a distant memory but a reality. I am going to head to the children's store that is close by and pick up a few new toys for the plane ride home. Oh, I am being called. I will post more tomorrow!

Moscow- day 25

It is Saturday here and was a beautiful day for most of the day. We went to the zoo this morning. The boys rode in strollers and did well. It was really nice that Vladmir Ок (our driver/translator) was willing to take us as he told the boys what the animals were in Russian while we told them the English words. The boys are now saying "soap" and "please" on a regular basis. Pasha said his favorite animal was the elephant. The animals kind of looked like they were sickly but the zoo grounds were nice. Vladimir said the zoo had been in operation since the early 20th century but the new addition had been a hospital in World War II. He also told us interesting facts about his education and upcoming college graduation. He is fortunate in that he has made some good connections in the city government and has a job waiting for him. He is very excited to have the government benefits of two months' vacation. He filled us in on the draft as well. It occurs every spring and fall. Apparently many families pay bribes to get the card that says the male is unfit for military duty due to some kind of physical ailment. The current cost for such a bribe is $5,000 USD. He said life in the Russian military is difficult as new recruits are hazed by the other soldiers. He had a friend that was drafted and after three months of service became disabled. I didn't ask the details as I did not want to pry. The boys continue to do well. We ate out at a restaurant and they looked at their hamburgers very suspiciously. After smelling it, Pasha did have a few bites while Ruslan preferred his fries, tomatoes and lettuce from the hamburger. They had a late nap so it will probably be a later bedtime but we don't have to get up early so that is probably okay. Tomorrow we are going to the Moscow Circus with Vladmir; we hope it is good as it was kind of expensive but will be a once in a lifetime experience for the boys. We will also visit some monuments too. We are counting the days to see everyone back home. I am proud that I have blogged daily as I think it will be nice for the boys to read when they get older. I hope to continue once we get home as things will continue to be interesting for them. Samantha made the cheerleading squad; I am very proud of her accomplishment. Now the fun begins of driving her to multiple practices and such that happen once kids enter junior high. She does not have a cell phone but we may be nearing that discussion soon. I saw pictures of Callie's pre-K graduation; she definitely looked cute in her dress and crown. See you in four days!